Burned out
 

I think I am suffering from burnout and even worse I've been drinking.

I have been feeling exhausted all the time and just unhappy overall. Between school and work, I feel like I never have time to myself. There is not a single day of the week I have that is free of obligation. Every day I either have work at the gym, personal clients, or school, or a combination of the three. I love what I do but not like this. There is no consistency in my schedule. It's all over the place. This all reached a huge low this morning when I realized I have an exam today that I probably would have remembered if I hadn't missed class on Tuesday because of a sinus infection that knocked me out of commission for over a week. So on that front I am totally screwed.

I know I need to create balance in my life and above all, not drink. Because that sure isn't helping my situation.

Just had to get this off my chest.

It takes our bodies some time to get back to normal, whatever normal is. For me a month and there were times I wasn't sure if I could make it however I stuck to my plan.

Sometimes I would have to force myself to take my dog on a hike yet once there I felt so great as I love being outside and hiking.

Stay strong, things will settle down, just takes time.

Andrew

Wishing you the best in recovery bud keep on keeping on

Drinking created more stress in my life than it was worth.

Maybe sit down and work out a schedule for yourself. I'm sure when you're clearheaded, you can find some down time for yourself.

Alcohol exasperated my sadness, made me down right miserable.

Practicing gratitude daily helps me start the day on a positive note.

Thank you for sharing, mns.

Welcome back mns. I"ve got a very busy life too, not a single day of the week when my work, kids or myself don't have something planned somewhere it seems.

You are right that alcohol isn't helping. In fact, it's making it worse. And I think it's very important to view the drinking as separate and distinct problem. I used all of the things you listed as excuses to keep drinking. Of course I deserved a beer after running the kids here and there, right? Or after a particularly stressful day to "wind down" right?

The problem is, we drink because we are alcoholics. Doesn't matter if we are busy or not - we drink. And it's also very hard to be able to re-organize your life and prioritize things to make them less "busy" unless you have a clear head.

I hope you can find the strength to put down the bottle...that's the first step.

drinking makes everything worse--less time, physical stress, forgetting things

get that stopped, do some planning, focus on organizing the rest of the semester
by setting up a due date time line for tests, papers, exams

start eating well, going to bed early, getting up early, and getting priority tasks done before 10 am

you'll be amazed at how fast things will come off your plate

I agree with you about balance in your life. Balance is what has sustained me throughout my recovery and I suffer when parts of my life become unbalanced. It sounds like you need to cut back on something, even just a bit, so that you have some time to just be. Drinking, towards the end, exhausted me. I had no energy left for anything. I think you will find that when you stop drinking, you will feel better and be better able to manage your life.

Lot of good advice here about balance. Good on you for making the time to admit to these thoughts.

I know for me, I've had to put my recovery first for a while. Drinking was not the only issue in my life and quitting drinking wasn't the be-all, end-all answer to my life's problems, BUT it was the first thing I had to do before I could start adequately addressing those other issues.

Wishing you the best today.

Thanks everyone.

The exam didn't go as bad as I dreaded it would. Still not great, but I knew more than I thought I would considering I missed the review on Tuesday.

And I just got back from the doctor and he agreed I need to cut back on work or my healh may very well implode. So I'm going to scale back my clientele.

Did you discuss your drinking at all? I would wager that it's a much bigger risk to your health than your work schedule.

Yes we did. We agreed that I need to do both things -- stop drinking NOW and start scaling back on work ASAP -- to give myself a real chance to recover. He said it may be the best way out of this vicious cycle I'm stuck in of excess stress triggering the urge to drink, drinking leading to even more stress, and then more drinking, and on and on.

And that's the thing. Stuck is how I feel. The prospect of quitting drinking seems so hard in the midst of my chaotic life.

But it must stop. Day 1 again and I WILL NOT drink tonight. And when I meet with my late evening clients tonight I'm going to inform that that I will no longer be available at that time going forward.